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Track List

1 Petite Suite: I. En Bateau 03:54
    by Claude Debussy
2 Masques 05:01
    by Claude Debussy
3 Douze Etudes: I. Pour les "cinq doigts" d'après Monsieur Czerny 02:40
    by Claude Debussy
4 Douze Etudes: II. Pour les Tierces 03:11
    by Claude Debussy
5 Douze Etudes: III. Pour les Quartes 03:49
    by Claude Debussy
6 Douze Etudes: IV. Pour les Sixtes 03:10
    by Claude Debussy
7 Douze Etudes: V. Pour les Octaves 02:26
    by Claude Debussy
8 Douze Etudes: VI. Pour les huit doigts 01:32
    by Claude Debussy
9 Douze Etudes: VII. Pour les Degrés chromatiques 01:56
    by Claude Debussy
10 Douze Etudes: VIII. Pour les Agréments 05:14
    by Claude Debussy
11 Douze Etudes: IX. Pour les Notes répétées 02:56
    by Claude Debussy
12 Douze Etudes: X. Pour les Sonorités opposées 05:36
    by Claude Debussy
13 Douze Etudes: XI. Pour les Arpèges composés 04:10
    by Claude Debussy
14 Douze Etudes: XII. Pour les Accords 05:03
    by Claude Debussy
15 Deux Arabesques: I. 03:39
    by Claude Debussy
16 Deux Arabesques: II. 03:21
    by Claude Debussy
17 Pour le piano: I. Prélude 03:57
    by Claude Debussy
18 Pour le piano: II. Sarabande 05:03
    by Claude Debussy
19 Pour le piano: III. Toccata 04:17
    by Claude Debussy
20 Images I: I. Reflets dans l'eau 05:23
    by Claude Debussy

Total Time: 76:18

About En Bateau - Piano Music by Claude Debussy

En Bateau is a twenty-track collection of piano pieces by Claude Debussy. The name refers to the first movement from the Petite Suite with the same name.

The Petite Suite, L 65, is a suite for piano four hands. It has been transcribed many times, most notably in an orchestral version by Debussy's colleague Henri Büsser. The suite, which was composed from 1886 to 1889, was first performed on 2 February 1889 by Debussy and pianist-publisher Jacques Durand at a salon in Paris. It may have been written due to a request (possibly from Durand) for a piece that would be accessible to skilled amateurs, as its simplicity is in stark contrast with the modernist works that Debussy was writing at the time.

Masques, L. 105, was composed in July 1904, and was premiered on 18 February 1905 by Ricardo Viñes at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. Its sombre character reflects Debussy's difficult separation from Lilly Texier, his first wife. The title refers to the commedia dell'arte, although Debussy confided to Marguerite Long that the piece was "not Italian comedy, but an expression of the tragedy of existence" (French: ce n'est pas la comédie italienne, mais l'expression tragique de l'existence.)

The Études are the final collection for piano by Claude Debussy, comprising twelve pieces composed between 5 August and 29 September 1915. Divided into two books and dedicated to the memory of Frédéric Chopin, they were premiered partially by pianists George Copeland on 21 November 1916 in New York City; Walter Rummel on 14 December 1916, at a concert for the benefit of "L'Aide affectueuse aux musiciens" in Paris; and Marguerite Long on 10 November 1917 at the Société nationale de musique. Composed during the turmoil of World War I, this work is characteristic of Debussy's "late style" – austere, concentrated, and visionary – as also seen in the first two of his Sonatas and the suite for two pianos En blanc et noir, composed contemporaneously. Building on Chopin's Études and Liszt's Transcendental Études, the work addresses various aspects of pianistic technique, from intervals (thirds, fourths, sixths, octaves) and digital mechanisms in the first book, to explorations of new sonorities in the second.

The Two Arabesques (Deux arabesques), L. 66, is a pair of arabesques composed for piano by Claude Debussy when he was still in his twenties, between the years 1888 and 1891. The arabesques contain hints of Debussy's developing musical style. The set is one of the very early impressionistic pieces of music, following the French visual art form. Debussy seems to wander through modes and keys, and achieves evocative scenes throughout both pieces. His view of a musical arabesque was a line curved in accordance with nature, and with his music he mirrored the celebrations of shapes in nature made by the Art Nouveau artists of the time. Of the arabesque in baroque music, he wrote: "That was the age of the ‘wonderful arabesque' when music was subject to the laws of beauty inscribed in the movements of Nature herself."

Reflets dans l'eau ("Reflections in the Water") is the first of three piano pieces from his first volume of Images, which are frequently performed separately. It was written in 1905. As with much of Debussy's work, it is referred to as Impressionistic, meaning that it expresses emotions and senses by making use of non-functional harmony and ambiguous key signatures, its tonality being mainly non-diatonic and usually having a sense of modality. It has similarities to Ravel's earlier piece Jeux d'eau. While in some ways Debussy influenced his younger contemporary, Ravel was arguably the first to adopt impressionism.

Credits

Manuel Ignacio de Íñigo - piano